Greetings!

I hope the start of summer vacation has been pleasant for you and your family.
I know the 2016-17 school year is over, but I will continue to send out some messages to students and families, primarily whenever I see something within the district or the community that may benefit you.

One of the big items I like to pass along are opportunities for Summer Jobs. I talk to employers frequently, and ask them what their needs are and also what ages they hire. I will pass possible jobs along (please note that some of the jobs are also appropriate for older children and even parents).

The first job that I will pass along that will hire 16-year-olds and older is at Reichly's Hallmark, a card shop in the little strip mall that is to the left of the Kroger in the Village Green on Wessel Drive. At the time I talked to them, they were primarily looking for nights and weekends, about 15 hours (but that, of course, may change).
A contact phone number is 513-829-6600. 

 

Be professional, good luck, and have a great summer ... and I will check back in with more jobs as I hear of them!

I have been announcing these dates in class on a daily basis and posting them on the SmartBoard. Here is an update for parents.

1. Wednesday, May 10: All late work must be turned in by this day, so that I may have time to grade it all.

2. Friday, May 12: Act 3 Reading Guide is due

3. Friday, May 12: Final Exam begins. Will be completed by Monday, May 15 (though many will likely finish all or most of the exam on Friday). Test includes information from Act 3 of A Raisin in the Sun, general information from the entire play, RITS vocabulary, the poem "Harlem," grammar, punctuation, and parts of speech. It will take the format of multiple choice, matching, and essay. 

Review sheets will be distributed next week, plus there will be review in class.

4. Monday, May 15: Leftover spring quarter hall passes will be collected for potential extra credit
FYI: Next week is NOT a good time to start the family vacation, both for my class and other classes.

Greetings, everyone!

After Monday's hacking and coughing, you may not have been surprised to find me absent Tuesday. However, I am now -- per my doctor's strict orders -- also going to be out Wednesday and Thursday. 

Due to that, some of you may be relieved that I am going to push the due date for the Final Independent Novel Paper back from Wednesday, March 22, to Wednesday, March 29 (the day we return from break).

You will be in the computer lab 3107 on both Wednesday and Thursday this week.

FYI: The due date for the final Independent Novel Paper will be Wednesday, March 22.

We will be in the computer lab Tuesday-Friday, plus also March 22. If students need additional time on the computer, they need to either contact me directly, or show up 1 hour before and after school, when the Media Center Lab is open for use by students.

Attention students who are interested in attending Butler Tech: Some programs did not receive enough applicants.

* For DRL, they are looking for more students who are interested in Teacher Academy.

* For SOA, they did not have enough instrumental music applicants.

 

If you are interested in either of these programs, the link to apply is: https://hsapplication.butlertech.org/

FYI: Are you an open-enrolled student/family? Your deadline for re-applying for next year is coming up soon. Here is the official school/district announcement:

Open Enrollment students and parents – All non-resident open enrolled students (including students who used relocation applications anytime during the 2016-17 school year) who are planning on continuing in Fairfield City Schools for 2017-18, must submit a renewal open enrollment application April 6, 2017 – May 26, 2017.

Just a quick reminder that Fairfield High School will be holding major SLO tests in many classes on Mon.-Wed., March 6-8, 2017. English 10 will be held all three days.

Many review sheets of items we have studied already will be given to your students Thursday and Friday, in addition to review/practice sessions in class, so it is very important that students be in attendance this week and next. Those items will also be posted.

For a project that we are starting Monday in our Persuasion/Rhetorical Devices Unit, my classes are in dire need of magazines. They can be of any age, but the key thing is that they must be magazines with advertisements in them (in other words, they cannot be catalogs, coupon books, Consumer Reports, etc.), because we will be looking for ads that have the various rhetorical devices and appeals in them.

THIS IS NOT MANDATORY. Students can bring in up to 5 magazines for up to 5 extra credit points. Please remove address labels. 

 

Today I handed back the first Independent Novel Response (out of 3) to students. Many of them were excellent, while some also had room for growth.

However, I also had a handful of students who plagiarized their responses.

This means that the students found essays or other materials online, and then copied it, treating the material as if they had written it themselves, or treating ideas as if they had come up with them themselves.

I know analyzing literature can be frustrating to sophomores -- as it is a skill that needs to be learned and practiced -- and it may be tempting to take shortcuts, but plagiarism is never the answer.
Please be aware that I would much rather have a student take baby steps in learning to write analytical papers (I am thrilled if a sophomore student merely gets the format correct and utilizes only basic analysis) than to have a student copy a paper that makes it sound as if they are writing a college dissertation. In fact, that is the way I discover most such plagiarizing ... I have had the students since August, and they suddenly go from a sophomore writing and vocabulary level to creating work that a graduate student might be proud of.
Also, be aware that the use of any plagiarized work -- at minimum -- will merit a zero on the content portion of my papers, and that students will likely receive a zero for the entire paper if most or all of it is copied. .
One Last Note: One student told me that he considered what he had done to be research, and that he was merely rewriting the information he had found. While I applaud the doing of research, 1. He copied the work word for word; and 2. He failed to acknowledge the fact that the information had come from a different author.

Thanks for listening.

If you or your child have any questions about this issue, please feel free to contact me. Our next response, #2, is due Friday, Feb. 17. We will be in the computer lab #3107  Wednesday-Friday.